Here we are, coming to the end of another year. Moving into the energy of the Winter Solstice, the season of the Returning Light. This darkest night this weekend, the beginning of our longer days, is inviting you into the deepest stillness of the year, into the quiet beauty of this longest night.
It is a time to turn inward, to nurture the flame of your own inner light, to blow on the glowing ember of your growing dreams and to remember to return to “you” as the light returns to our days.
As the darkness fades, let’s take this time to look deep within our own sacred gardens and find the left overs, the waste, the weeds, the no longer needed stuff that we can rake up and let go of as we clear a space for the returning light.
I am breathing deeply, inhaling the gratitude I feel for all the good, the bad, the ugly and indifferent, and the joy-filled events of this past week, month, year. I am continually surprised at how easy it is for me to go from soaring to sunk, ecstatic to explosive, energized to dead battery. Do you ever find yourself like that?
Every one of those emotions and feelings has accompanied me through just this past week alone. Some I carried with me all through 2025 (drat, sure thought I left them in that hole I dug for their funeral last year.) Others shocked me when they showed up with such power and persuasive strength. Like out of nowhere, they fired off a flash bang and there I was, flat on my fanny wondering WTH?
I am hoping to drift into 2026 in my wellness canoe and float right into the perfect year I am envisioning. I have never been good at planning. I am a shoot from the hip kind of gal, taking it as it comes, doing the best I can to keep up.
Ever sit and contemplate the things that make you go hmmm, like a dream that feels more like a memory? Maybe it’s a creative spark that arrives unexpectantly, as if the idea has chosen you rather than the other way around?
Think it’s Spirit’s way of nudging you along or pushing you out of your comfort zone?
As the Solstice energy invades my thoughts, my body and mind, I am working on what I need to bury this year, to let go and leave behind. I am clearing out my sacred garden to make room for the seeds I am ready to plant.
Do you have things or people like that in your world? They are exhausting and leave you plopped in a comfy chair, not paralyzed but not moving?
Take some time this weekend and celebrate the Solstice. I plan on making a yule log (though it will likely be stick as I no longer have a fireplace.)
It will come from our young oak trees to represent quiet strength and endurance I need to move through the darkest season. I will decorate it with joy, gather candles around it and on the Solstice eve, I will create a wee fire out back to burn this “mighty” little oak in a ceremonial act of transformation. As the little flames rise, I will speak blessings for the coming year and release into the fire, the hardships of this past year.
Just as importantly, I will call in what I wish to grow, my health and my family’s, spiritual abundance, creativity, and peace. It is my moment to carry forward what nourishes me and let the fire of hope burn bright enough within me to guide me through the coming year.
I offer you this thought for this Solstice weekend… burn what no longer serves you, bless what you long to create, and let this ancient rite anchor you to the turning of the year.
May the longest night cradle your spirit with peace, and may the returning light guide your steps toward all that is healing, whole, and true.
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Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
Connect with Vicki here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vickildobbsauthor